Commerce Sends Back Warehouse Ordinance

After hearing concerns from the business community, Commerce city officials are taking a second look at an ordinance to require conditional use permits for new warehouse space.

The ordinance was proposed as a way to monitor warehouses that generate frequent truck trips, which are expected to go up in coming years with the expansion of the ports and railroad industry.

At the Oct. 4 meeting the city council voted to deny a second reading of the ordinance, and asked staff to draw up a new ordinance that better addresses the concerns brought up by the Industrial Council, the business chamber in the City of Commerce.

Isella Ramirez, co-executive director of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, said they supported the ordinance going through. She called Commerce a “diesel magnet” and said the city should focus on a green zones policy instead of relying on jobs that depend on the warehousing and goods movement industries.

Sixty-percent of the land in Commerce is industrial, and officials estimate that its largest warehouse is 400,000 square feet and brings in 124 truck trips a day. The city’s residential population is just over 12,000.

Industrial Council president Eddie Tafoya did not respond to a request for comment on the ordinance.

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